It’s worth noting that the preview is showing what path the laser is going to take as the job progresses, but it’s not a true representation of what the final result will be - it’s to spot check that the path looks right, but to see the final product you have to actually run it.
If you look at the ‘Interval’ section of your posted image, you will see that it is set very low producing large gaps between each line generated. Bump that number up to match that of Oz’s suggestion.
k thanks guys. I can work from this now.
Now my original question was in reference t a photo like this. Wow. This looks like a whole other ball game. Googled cnc laser photo woman
LightBurn will produce photos of that level of quality, but it doesn’t do it automatically. There’s a bit of info here to get you started: Image engraving guidelines
That thread links to a discussion where some other examples are given. Your DPI setting above (85) is still very low for a diode laser, but experiment - you’ll find settings that work.
OMG…great video
Ok, so after a couple days of playing around, this is the best I could come up with on Pine. Still not quite there.
There is something brutally mis-configured with your machine if you’re getting that result at 3% power on a diode laser going 180mm/sec.
In the console window, type $$ and press enter, then copy & paste the text it emits back here so we can have a look. You should be running about 50mm/sec, 80% power, 250 to 300 DPI, with about 2.5% overscan.
You need to go faster with higher power.
3% on my diode (3.5w) would only be enough to focus the laser, not burn anything.
180mm speed would be used to cut, not engrave.
I also use 2.5% overscan and I try and use a DPI of 254 or so… I can get away with about 121 depending on the wood type…
… From your image it looks like you have another image higher up which seems to have come out better but we cannot see it.
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$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=25 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=0 (dir port invert mask:00000000)
$4=0 (step enable invert, bool)
$5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)
$6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)
$10=3 (status report mask:00000011)
$11=0.010 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$20=0 (soft limits, bool)
$21=0 (hard limits, bool)
$22=0 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=0 (homing dir invert mask:00000000)
$24=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=500.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=250 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=1.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
$30=1000. (rpm max)
$31=0. (rpm min)
$32=0 (motor lock bool)
$33=7 (motor mode mask:00000111)
$100=80.000 (x, step/mm)
$101=80.000 (y, step/mm)
$102=80.000 (z, step/mm)
$110=5000.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=5000.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=10000.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=250.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=250.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=250.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=500.000 (x max travel, mm)
$131=500.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=500.000 (z max travel, mm)
ok
The image above that one was no good. His face was burnt
I tried 50mm/sec, 80% power, 250 to 300 DPI, with about 2.5% overscan…it was just a black smudge
First, your $110 / $111 settings are such that your machine can go no faster than 5000 mm/minute, or 83 mm/sec. Anything you request higher than that will have no effect.
Second, you’re using an older version of GRBL (looks like 1.0b, maybe?) that doesn’t have laser mode. Check to make sure the ‘S value Max’ setting in the Device Settings in LightBurn matches the $30 setting in the firmware (yours is 1000).
The lack of laser mode means that your controller is likely pausing with each power change, and that will be causing the massive over-burn you’re getting. If you can upgrade to newer firmware (GRBL 1.1f at least) it should help a great deal.
k, I updated S Value to 1000 (not sure why) but where do I get GRBL 1.1f? I did resetup my device using M3.
but that changed nothing
I also updated $110 & $111 to 10000
For your specific machine, I’m not sure. I would contact whoever makes it to see if they have a version of it for that hardware. If it’s generic, you can likely find it online. A good number of people use the T2Laser trial to re-flash their controllers to newer versions of GRBL, but there are other tools available to do this.
So I installed T2Laser and updated firmware. How’s this?
$0=10
$1=25
$2=0
$3=0
$4=0
$5=0
$6=0
$10=1
$11=0.010
$12=0.002
$13=0
$20=0
$21=0
$22=0
$23=0
$24=100.000
$25=1000.000
$26=250
$27=1.000
$30=255
$31=0
$32=1
$100=80.000
$101=80.000
$102=80.000
$110=4000.000
$111=4000.000
$112=6000.000
$120=800.000
$121=800.000
$122=5000.000
$130=400.000
$131=300.000
$132=200.000
ok
A number of your settings were changed with the update, so you should put them back first. Type these lines, one by one, into the console to change them:
$10=0
$24=25
$25=500
$30=1000
$110=5000.000
$111=5000.000
$112=10000.000
$120=250.000
$121=250.000
$122=250.000
$130=500.000
$131=500.000
$132=500.000
After you change those, in LightBurn you can choose the GRBL device type instead of GRBL-M3, and that should help.
Ok…VERY different results. Thank you. So my EEPROM settings were all messed up from the factory…nice. Not sure how a newbee would ever have known that.
I think it still needs tweaking but happy so far
Defo improvement for sure… Well done.
Have you tried on a smoother finish of wood as this may allow you to see the issues a little more clearly.
Maybe get some smooth plywood and try that initially
